GLADYS KNIGHT is set to sing the national anthem at Super Bowl LIII. The seven-time Grammy Award winner will be representing her home city of Atlanta - the city hosting the event. But amidst her many successful years in the music industry, Gladys has also endured a secret battle with cancer.

Gladys Knight, 74, revealed she had breast cancer at the funeral Aretha Franklin last year. While she spoke with WDIV (a local television station in Detroit, Michigan) at the memorial service, Knight, a friend of the soul singer who died of pancreatic cancer, said: “We shared the fact that that we had the same disease.” But at the time of the statement she didn’t disclose when she was diagnosed with the illness.